Sketches in Christian Origins

The Mysteries of the Apostolic Tradition 2

A particularly interesting and particularly obscure passage in the Apostolic Tradition occurs after the section on baptism and first communion.

Now we have briefly delivered to you these things concerning the holy baptism and the holy oblation, for you have already been instructed concerning the resurrection of the flesh and all other things as written. Yet if there is any other thing that ought to be told, let the bishop impart it to them privately after their baptism; let not unbelievers know it, until they are baptized: this is the white stone of which John said: “There is upon it a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth the stone”.

This seems to be an early example of the disciplina arcani the practice of revealing some elements of Christian doctrine and worship only to baptized Christians. However since the Apostolic Tradition has already revealed the rituals of Baptism and Eucharist it is unclear what is left to be revealed. (It has been suggested that the Lord’s prayer (Our Father) is meant alternatively some form of mystagogical catechesis on the spiritual meaning of the sacraments. However, none of these suggestions is particularly convincing.)

There are textual issues which are relevant here. The quotation above is from the Coptic. The Arabic and standard Ethiopic are similar although failure to recognise that the passage about the white stone is a quotation from Revelation has led to various errors in translation. The Latin tantalisingly has a large gap beginning just before this passage. There is no parallel in the Apostolic Constitutions The Canons of Hippolytus reads All the mysteries concerning life [baptism] resurrection and the sacrifice, the Christians alone [are] those who hear them. This is because they have received the seal of baptism because they are the participants [in it]. The catechumens are to hear the word concerning the faith and the teaching only. It is the judgment of which John speaks: “No one knows it except he who receives it. The Testamentum Domini reads And let them be taught also about the resurrection of bodies; before anyone receives baptism, let no one know the word about the resurrection, for this is the new decreee that has a new name that no one knows except the one who receives (This is the standard Syriac form. There is an important Ethiopic variant with resurrection instead of resurrection of bodies and the Ethiopic tradition has a gloss which clearly interprets resurrection as referring to the resurrection of Christ.)

The version in the Canons of Hippolytus which is about the exclusion of Catechumens from the mysteries of Baptism Eucharist and Resurrection, (i.e. Easter the ‘mystery of the resurrection’), is generally regarded as secondary. Apart from anything else, the passage seems an easier simplified version of the other readings. The Testamentum Domini with its idea of a teaching about resurrection only delivered after baptism has been regarded as the closest to the original but most scholars treat it as secondary and idiosyncratic. One result of comparing the different versions is a suspicion that resurrection in the original is at least as likely to have been about the resurrection of Christ as about the Christian hope of future resurrection.

In the next post we will consider the bearing of the new Ethiopic text on this issue.